


Ready, Aim, Fire

by scar-and-boomerang (Y_Woo)



Series: ATLA Daemons AU [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Aang is a bean, Again ew tags, Alternate Universe - Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Angst, Angsty boi Zuko, BAMF Kaatara, Canon Rewrite, Canonical Character Death, Daemons, Episode: s01e01 The Boy in the Iceberg, Episode: s01e02 The Avatar Returns, Episode: s01e03 The Southern Air Temple, Episode: s01e04 The Warriors of Kyoshi, Episode: s01e10 Jet, Episode: s01e18 The Waterbending Master, Episode: s01e19-20 The Siege of the North, Everyone Angst, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hopefully not completely though, Katara is a BAMF, Kyoshi Island, Kyoshi Warriors - Freeform, Light Angst, Minor Character Death, Minor canonical character death, Northern Water Tribe, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Princess Yue - Freeform, Rewrite, Sokka Angst, The Moon - Freeform, Zuko - Freeform, Zuko Angst, daemons AU, frienship, my first girlfriend turned into the moon, okay I'm done with my tags., you know what the original series is like so basically that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-16 08:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21033245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Y_Woo/pseuds/scar-and-boomerang
Summary: “So that’s why you never introduced us to your daemon.” Mags concluded once they were in the air again, Aang at the rein. The fox’s voice had a smugness to it as he looked pointedly at Katara, clearly pleased to be proven right against his human. “the Avatars never have one.”“No, I don’t.” Aang admitted. “The monks said it was something to do with a spirit already inside me, or something.”Retelling of a small selection of canon episodes from season one taking the initial Gaang from the South Pole to the siege at the north, set in an AU where all the people are born with a soul-animal companion know as a "daemon", as in the style of Lyra's universe in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Contains NO His Dark Materials spoilers.





	1. Shake it All Up

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any ATLA characters or storylines, or the concepts and world building done by Philip Pullman. All daemon character names and characterisation are my own. Title of story, chapters and the quotes are taken from the lyrics of 'Ready, Aim, Fire' by Imagine Dragons, I do not own that either.

* * *

Hey Mr. Motion, Make me a potion,  
Shake it all up with your mysteries.  
How come I've never seen your face around here?  
I know every single face around here.

* * *

Four pairs of eyes peered down at the strange boy sporting archaic tattoos and wearing robes much too flimsy for someone who had just emerged from an iceberg, lying unconscious atop a giant animal covered in white fur. He looked young enough, but something about him just seemed to juxtapose that youth with _ancient, removed, and mysterious._ Not to mention those tattoos of pale blue arrows, from what Katara could recall our of Gran Gran’s stories, resembled _airbender_ tattoos. 

“You reckon he’s dead?” Rikki honked in his obnoxious tone, just recovering from the glowing lights that had emitted from the spot moments ago.

“_Rikki!_” Mags scolded his brother, “Don’t be so insensitive!” 

Ignoring the snowy fox, Sokka’s daemon waddled up to the unmoving boy, and pecked at his forehead with his own beak. “Sokka! Tell your daemon to stop it.” Mags spoke directly to the human this time while Katara stepped forward and cradled the kid experimentally in her arms to rouse him.

Eventually, after much staring and invitations to go penguin sledding and accusations of being Fire Nation spies, introductions between the Water Tribe siblings and the boy in strange attires commenced, lead by Katara.

“The paranoid one is my brother Sokka, and that’s his daemon over there, Taliriktug, but we all just call him Rikki. He’s a harlequin duck. And this is Maguyuk, or Mags, my snow fox, I’m Katara.”

“Nice to meet you, Sokka! Rikki! Katara! Mags!” Aang recited enthusiastically bowing in order to each of the names and accidentally mixed up the two daemons, who glared at each other in annoyance. Turning back to address Katara, he commented “you daemon is very pretty!”

Mags huffed, hiding his secret pride at the compliment. “Thanks!” Katara filled in for them both, “You never told us you name. 

“I'm A ... a-a-a-achoo!” Aang suddenly let out a sneeze, which caused him to leap high into the air and drift gracefully down like a feather to the ground, unharmed. “I’m Aang.” He finished, as the siblings and their daemons gaped openly at him.

“You’re an airbender!” Katara gasped.

“Sure am!” 

Sokka and Rikki snorted at the same time, with a synchronisation clearly perfected over the course of fifteen long years. “Giant light beams, flying bison, airbenders, I think I got midnight sun madness. I'm going home to where stuff makes sense.” The human declared, turning away only to find the ice they’d been standing on was floating on an open ocean that stretched to no bounds, and the boat they’d came in was nowhere to be seen. He gulped, trying to quell the panic quickly rising in his chest. 

“If you guys are stuck, Appa and I can give you a lift!” Aang offered, already leaping onto the furry giant with a gush of breeze. Katara and Sokka stared at each other, bewildered.

“Are you sure?” Katara asked tentatively, not wanting to sound rude. “Letting others touch your daemon is extremely intimate, we don’t wish to impose.”

Aang looked momentarily confused, then his expression cleared as he quickly comprehended the situation. “Oh! No, Appa’s not my daemon. He’s my flying bison! It’s fine, hop on!” 

“Well in that case, thanks!” Katara said, clambering onto the gentle beast with Sokka reluctantly and skeptically tailing behind them. Appa, however, had an agenda of his own and decided firmly that he would not fly that day, no matter how many “yip-yip”s Aang threw his way. Eventually he gave in and they settled for steering the bison to swim through the icy waters of the South Pole.

“Wow, that was _truly_ amazing.” Rikki jabbed sarcastically, much to Katara’s chagrin as she reassured Aang that it was still better than nothing.

“So where_ is _your daemon, then?” Mags questioned after a while, when it became clear Aang had no immediate plan to fill them in or make any introductions. The demand seemed to startle the airbender boy, as he flushed and began to stammer.

“What? Oh, my daemon? She’s in my robes! She’s just not ready to meet you all yet, she’s very shy, you see. Maybe tomorrow when she’s been around you guys a while longer?” 

Mags and Rikki exchanged curious glances. “What form is she?” Mags asked.

“She’s not settled yet.” Aang explained quickly. “I’m going to get some sleep, it looks like we won’t make it back to the village until morning. Good night.” 

The siblings both followed suit, caution easing gradually the more time they spent with the boy. Even Sokka, who’d initially been suspicious, couldn’t help but admit that there is indeed an air of trustworthy innocence around him that likely couldn’t be faked. Besides, he’s just a boy. Albeit an _airbender_ boy. The fact in itself raised several questions, as all airbenders have gone extinct for far longer than Aang could have been alive. _Perhaps he had been born into a family of non-benders, the first of several generations_, he mused, however that didn’t explain his clear mastery over the art when there would be no one around to teach him. 

“He’s lying.” Mags insisted lowly when everyone’s movements stilled under the watchful gaze of the moon, “about the daemon.”

“How can you be sure?” Sokka demanded, Mags had no good response to this.

“Just a hunch.” He admitted through gritted teeth, “There’s something off about his daemon, something funny, I can feel it. Or rather… I can’t. It’s almost as if he doesn’t have one.”

“Oh quit it, Mags.” Katara scolded her own fox, “Sokka’s paranoia is rubbing off on you, isn’t it? _Obviously_ Aang has a daemon, everyone has a daemon. Does he look like a zombie from Gran Gran’s bedtime tales to you? She’s probably just small, and shy, just like Aang told us himself.” 

“Probably.” Mags conceded, but clearly not satisfied. Still, as both humans drifted off into sleep, the inherent bond between them meant that he could not fight drowsiness himself for much longer to ponder the subject further.

* * *

“Now men, it's important that you show no fear when you face a firebender. In the Water Tribe, we fight to the last man standing! For without courage, how can we call ourselves men?”

Sokka’s voice boomed across the flat space between the igloos, with his duck standing by his feet, flapping his wings threateningly and craning his neck to appear as tall as possible (which still wasn’t very tall), pointing his club towards six unimpressed toddlers and their teetering daemons. 

“Now let me see those wolf forms!” He ordered loudly. The children clambered to their feet, gripping a stick each in their chubby hands and planted their feet in a clumsy stance into the snow. Their daemons all shifted into wolf pups, whimpering next to each boy.

One kid’s daemon, growing tired and bored quickly, shifted back into her favourite form of a polar hare, and was soon spotted by their self-appointed teacher, who scolded both boy and hare harshly.

“Get back into your proper form!” Sokka yelled, waving his club frantically. “You’re not going to bring down any firebenders as a _rabbit_!”

“It’s a hare!” The daemon piped in her soft voice, “and you don’t have a wolf either. You have a _duck_.” She pointed out, grumbling. At this, Rikki puffed his chest out authoritatively.

“And he can kick Fire Nation butt! Not to mention all your butts!” As if to prove his human’s point, the duck waddled like an angry overweight woman up to the poor puppy and pecked him once, hard, on the head. Ignoring the yelp of pain coming from the human, Sokka pressed on. “So get back into your form, and concentrate! Now let me hear those battle cries!” 

The baby wolves burst into a chorus of infantile howls obediently.

“Aww, that’s so cute!” Aang’s voice piped up from behind Sokka, prompting the little boys to burst into a fit of giggles, surround the airbender and grab for his staff. A couple wolves, due to the interruption to their concentrations, shifted back into various leverets, chicks, and deer cubs.

“They are _not_ cute! Argh!” Sokka grumbled loudly, scanning the landscape and spotting his sister in her blue dress, he called, “Katara, get him out of here! This lesson is for warriors _only! _Get back here, boys! We don't have time for fun and games with _the War_ going on!” 

This caught Aang’s attention, as he looked up at Sokka, genuine incomprehension written across his face, “What war? What are you talking about?”

Sokka gaped back, “you’re kidding, right?”

Just then, however, the younger boy had spotted a flock of otter penguin in the distance, and ran off like an overexcited polar bear-dog puppy, babbling about fish and sledding.

“He’s kidding, right?” Sokka repeated, to no one in particular this time.

* * *

“Get out of our village, _now!_” He knew that bringing this Aang boy into the village was bad news. The kid was what seemed to be the last remaining member of a group of people the Fire Nation had shown particular interest in destroying, and history had proven that the nation’s military was neither above nor hesitant to resort to genocide. 

Katara may be right in that he wasn’t evil, but clearly stupidity is enough to put them all in danger anyway. Seriously? _Waltzing_ into an off-bounds Fire Nation shipwreck and _booby-ing_ (his words, not Sokka’s) right into sending a fire flare into the sky? _What had they been thinking?_

“Katara, you knew going on that ship was forbidden.” Gran Gran supported Sokka sternly, her tiny penguin glaring, “Mags too, I thought you were more responsible than this.”

“I was trying to _stop_ them from doing something stupid!” The fox pleaded, clearly dreading the old woman’s disappointment.

“Either way, Sokka is right. I think it best if the airbender leaves.”

Hearing this, Katara yelled, outraged, “fine! Then I’m banished too! Come on, Aang, we’re going to the North Pole to find ourselves a waterbender master _together._”

She marched towards the flying bison, who let how a low grumble. Turning back to face the rest of the tribe and seeing the look of shock on their faces, though, her determination seem to have faltered a little. Still, not wishing to be defeated, she held her ground.

“Come on Mags, we’re leaving!”

The white fox in question stood firmly by his brother, tails tucked low between his hind legs, he put one front foot forward and pressed his head down near the ground to voice a low whine. The duck next to him took this as an opportunity to strike.

“Katara! Would you really choose him over your tribe? Your own family?” He asked, though addressing Katara, he had turned to face Mags completely, clearly picking up on his unwillingness and wanting to use it to coerce the human into staying. Katara hesitated and, upon Aang’s gentle prompting about not wanting to stand between her and her family, she conceded to state and bid the airbender farewell.

Sokka set about preparing for the Fire Nation’s visit, donning the war paint he hasn’t worn since the day his dad left. He felt a bit ridiculous doing it, just a sole teenaged boy standing his ground against armies, but the paint helped hide fear and other emotions that might be played to the enemies advantage, and his dad had taught him to apply it, so he held on to the few gifts form the father he missed every day, just like his sister held onto that necklace of their mum. 

When the ship ploughed down the watchtower and lowered its hull, Sokka was ready. Unfortunately, preparedness did not mean he had magically gained any combat skills as he charged at the Fire Nation prince again and again, only to be knocked aside every time as the better trained teenager advanced onto South Pole grounds. 

In a last desperate attempt, his duck half-ran, half-flew at Prince Zuko, honking furiously and infernally loud. Thrown off his balance with a start, the Fire Nation boy quickly regained his control and firebent at the duck, just off-marks enough so the scorching heat scared the daemon away without really burning him.

This gave Sokka enough of a window to throw his boomerang, and watched as it arced gracefully in the air, and sliced out its way to knock directly into the back of the prince’s skull. Ashamed and enraged, the firebender conjured two fire daggers. The gathered villagers let out a visible gasp and Sokka braced himself for the real fight, which, unfortunately, had just begun.

He never got to do anything, though, as this was the moment Aang chose to return on his glider, and knocking Zuko off his feet and burying him in snow in the landing process. 

“_You’re_ the airbender?” After recovering, the prince shouted down at the twelve year old in front of him, equal parts flustered, embarrassed, and bewildered, “_You’re_ the Avatar?”

Everyone in the vicinity gasped in shock. “Aang?” Mags exclaimed. 

“No way!” Rikki chimed in. 

“If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?” Aang offered. Soon the deal was struck, and Katara could only watch helplessly as the boy was taken away aboard the intimidating ship in chains.

* * *

“He's flying! He's flying! Katara, he's—” Sokka himself off abruptly when he noticed Katara’s raised eyebrows teasing him wordlessly, and backtracked his attitude. “I mean, _big deal_, Rikki does it all the time.” 

After copying Aang’s encouraging “yip-yip”s, they had finally gotten Appa to take off into the skies, airbending through the clouds in search of the Fire Nation ship that had captured the young airbender. On their way, Sokka and Rikki continually tossed rescue plans back and forth, recalling structural details they noticed about the ship when they weren’t busy getting their butts handed to them, and selecting points of landing and entry. _Should they go for a sneak attack, or should they use the element of surprise and Appa to throw off the crew?_

Turns out though, none of these itineraries were necessary. As the metal vessel emerged into view, Aang had already fought his way onto the deck and was battling the Fire Prince. Katara cheered and urged Appa faster. When they got there, however, they were only just in time to see an unconscious Aang falling into the chilling waters near the iceberg.

“Aang!” Katara’s joyed calls quickly morphed into horror, “No!”

“We have to go down and get him!” Mags cried out at Katara’s side, only to be cut off by Sokka, putting a hand on Katara’s arm which was holding the rein. 

“We’re too big a target, the ship will blast us out of the sky, too.”

So they could do nothing but circle the sky, Katara calling out “Aang” over and over again. She hated it. It reminded her all too closely of the day their mum left them, taken away by the Fire Nation as well, and she could do nothing but call, for their mum, dad, _anyone_.

Suddenly, a whirlpool emerged from the depth of the ocean, wrapping around a small body with glowing stripes and arrows and eyes, water lashed out at the ship from all directions, washing the soldiers into the sea. 

“Now _that_ was some waterbending!” Rikki quacked through the other three’s shocked silence, a little sarcastic, but also clearly impressed.

* * *

“So that’s why you never introduced us to your daemon.” Mags concluded once they were in the air again, Aang at the rein. The fox’s voice had a smugness to it as he looked pointedly at his human, clearly pleased to be proven right. “the Avatars never have one.”

“No, I don’t.” Aang admitted. “The monks said it was something to do with a spirit already inside me, or something.”

“How come you never told us that you were the Avatar?” Katara asked, her voice laced with a hint of accusation, but mostly gentle and curious.

“Because… I never wanted to be.” The boy replied softly.

“But Aang, the world's been _waiting_ for the Avatar to return and finally put an end to this war.” Katara prompted, looking hopefully at the boy in front of them. It hit Sokka with a pang how small his frame was, as if it wasn’t ridiculous enough that the entire planet was waiting for a mythical figure to spring back into existence after a century of being MIA and fix all their problems with magical bending voodoo, now that he was really back, it turned out he was _just a boy,_ after all.

_Younger even, _he thought, _than _he_ was, when he was left to protect an entire village as the men- including his father - had left to fight in the same war._ Spirits, how was Aang supposed to protect the _world?_

“Well, if we go to the North Pole, we can master waterbending together!” Katara’s voice - ever filled with the optimism that Sokka could rarely manage despite only being a year her senior - pulled him back into reality. Well, that’s a solid step one, at the very least.

“And Sokka and Rikki, I'm sure you'll get to knock some firebender heads on the way.” Mags supplied cheerfully.

“We’d like that.” His duck agreed, standing up to shake his crumpled feathers, “We’d _really_ like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: heck I don't think I have enough content for decently lengthen chapters and I don't want to drag things out oh no.  
Plot: *evil laughter*
> 
> Seriously though this fandom doesn't need more rewrites and yet here I am. I really do hope I've added enough "new and different" and not just reallocating lines in the show to a duck and a fox on occasions though, and for this reason, I will be skipping A LOT of episodes and plot points that I've decided I won't be able to bring much more to with the added daemons aspect. 
> 
> If you're still with this AU please leave comments! I've got so much planned and do love a little encouragement to carry me through realising all my ideas :)


	2. You Close Your Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor spoiler for Korra S2, where the origin of the Avatar is revealed.

* * *

An empire's fall is just one day,  
You close your eyes and the glory fades.  
Ready, aim, fire, ready, aim, fire away.

* * *

“Wait till you see it, Katara! The Air Temple is one of the most_ beautiful_ places in the world!” The clear voice of the giddy airbender rung through the skies as his bison flew forward. They approached the temple, and Aang’s chirps became increasingly energetic and frequent, deeply worrying Katara and her daemon, who kept exchanging ominous glances with her.

“Aang, I know you're excited,” she approached the subject carefully, “but it's been a hundred years since you've been home... a lot can change in all that time.”

“I know, but I need to see it for myself.” Aang replied halfheartedly, clearly missing the grave tone of Katara’s voice and not becoming an ounce less optimistic about the whole situation. _This couldn’t go well,_ she could almost hear Mags think, though not able to literally read his mind.

They landed and roused the sleeping Sokka, who had been snoring softly and cuddling his daemon like a plushie. He let out a large yawn, then started to rummage around his pack for nourishment.

“Hey! Who ate all of my blubbered seal jerky?!” He asked, finding his favourite treat gone.

“Oh. That was food?” Aang asked innocently, “I used it to start the campfire last night, sorry.” He confessed, while Sokka let out a pained whine.

“Great,” Rikki quacked venomously at Aang, “now we’re never going to hear the end of it. Hungry Sokka is _loud and irritating_ Sokka.”

“Easy for you to say,” Sokka retorted, aggravated. “You don’t have to eat.”

“And yet I find myself doing most of the work bringing in food, fishing.”

They ascended once more into the air, and up to the temples. Heeding Aang’s shout of warning to hold onto their daemons, Katara clutched Mags tightly with one arm while gripping onto the saddle with the other as they flew almost vertically upwards. Sokka, however, still half-awake and hungry, reacted one moment too slow and Rikki tumbled off the saddle with an alarmed shout. He gained his balance quickly and flapped his wings frantically to gain altitude at a speed that didn’t separate him and his human on the bison.

By the time the temples came into sight, the bird was ruffled and exhausted.

“What.” He squawked to no one in particular, punctuating the word with a stomp of his webbed foot, “in the love of all the spirits? I know I can fly, but I’m not good at it! And I would rather not, thank you.”

The daemon’s indignance had been readily ignored by all other members of the team, however, as they peered over the edge of the saddle at the stunning scene stretching out below them, the Air Temples that no one had laid eyes upon for a century, a fact Aang was currently blissfully unaware of, much to the anxiety of Katara and Mags.

“We're home, buddy! We're home.” Aang reached out to ruffle Appa’s fur while girl and daemon looked at each other uncertainly.

* * *

“Katara, Mags, check this out.” Sokka called out, leering over the red and gold helmet lying in the dirt as the two made their ways over.

“Fire Nation.” Mags growled shrilly, circling the helmet, sniffing carefully. “It’s old. Decades, a century, even. But they’ve been here.”

“We should tell him.” Sokka said, looking over at the boy still bouncing around on narrow wooden pegs with swift gushes of wind. Katara nodded, calling him over, but as the airbender trotted up to them happily, eyes wide and full of silent laughter, she faltered.

“Just a new waterbending move I learned.” She covered up quickly, dumping snow onto both the helmet and Sokka. The latter spluttered wildly, patting himself dry with an eye roll, while his daemon watched Aang run off into the temple interior.  
“You can’t protect him forever, you know. Firebenders were here. You can't pretend they weren't.” The duck commented wisely.

“I can for Aang’s sake.” Katara decided stubbornly, crossing her arms. Mags looked up at her from the ground, his glittering black eyes reproachful, clearly reminding her wordlessly that up until ten minutes ago, _she _had been the one fixated on preparing Aang for the traumatic realisation that likely awaited him at this temple.

She delivered a glare at him that said _shut up, I know._

Sokka and Rikki looked as if they were about to debate the issue further, but they didn’t get the chance to as Aang called out to them once more, standing in front of a statue of an old man he called Monk Gyatso, his old airbending master.

* * *

_“But the true secret, is the gooey centre.” _

_Young Aang stood beside the monk while he retracted a fruit pie from the oven and airbended the final steps before handing it to Aang. Gyatso frowned upon seeing his ward distant and distracted from appreciating his cooking._

_“My ancient cake-making technique isn't the only thing on your mind, is it, Aang?”_

_“It’s just… this whole daemon thing.” Aang explained truthfully. “I know I’m the Avatar and Avatars don’t have daemons but somehow I just feel… lost without it, like I’m missing a part of myself.”_

_“But, my young pupil, you_ do_ have a daemon.” Gyatso explained in a warm, and kind voice. “A person’s daemon is merely their soul, or spirit, manifested outside their body in the form of an animal. You, my boy, carry that spirit inside you. The Avatar’s spirit is the most powerful there is. Her name is Raava, and she has been with you since your very first incarnation.”_

_“Wow…” this had obviously been new to Aang, who looked at his mentor, wide-eyed and full of wonder, “still, I’d like to be able to talk to her, I bet she can help me figure out who I am for once.”_

_“You will. When you master the elements and activate the Avatar state, you will meet her, and all the humans who had bonded with her spirit in the past. It will all will reveal itself to you.” Gyatso promised, his baboon daemon padding over to sit by the both of them on the temple ledge, overlooking the misty drop below them._

_“Your questions will be answered when you're old enough to enter the air temple sanctuary. Inside, you will meet someone who will guide you on your journey.”_

_“Who is it?” Aang asked, perking up at the prospect potential friend. He’s never had a lot of those growing up, being constantly deemed ‘freaky’ by most due to his lack of a visible soul in the form of an animal._

_“When you are ready, he will reveal himself to you. Now, are you going to help me with these cakes or not?” He demanded in a teasing tone, passing another finished pie to his baboon, who took it eagerly._

_Together they counted to the mark of three, before launching the pies into the air with bending, and hitting teach of the other monks’ bald heads, sending both monks, old man and child, into fits of laughter._

* * *

Aang walked towards the sanctuary Gyatso mentioned, with Katara and Sokka trailing behind them, asking about monk Gyatso casually and wondering where Aang was headed to next. He arrived at the large door with the two horn-shaped locks, and airbent the doors open.

“Hello? Anyone home?” He called out, only to be greeted by a host of statues of various benders, arranged in the avatar cycle of elements. “That's Avatar Roku. The Avatar before me.” He realised, stopping in front of the nearest statue, and looking into his stony eyes.

“You were a firebender? No wonder I didn't trust you when we first met.” Sokka declared, pleased at having found some grounds for his unjust distrust.

“Weren’t you just doubting the existence of past lives and reincarnations two seconds ago?” Came Rikki’s drawl at his feet.

“Who’s side are you on?” Sokka accused, jabbing a finger at the duck.

“The right one, always.”

Suddenly, there came a rustling behind them. All five of them started and jumped out of view quickly, curling behind the statue of the airbender Avatar before Aang, tensely and fearful.

“Give us a second.” Sokka told the rest of the group in a hushed tone and nodded to the bird he’d just been squabbling with minutes ago. The duck understood and padded out as quietly as possible, as Sokka closed his eyes and willed his own sight away.

He was short this time, barely up to the pedestals all the Avatars stood on. They advanced cautiously, closing in on the source of the sound and Sokka noted the interior of the room for any shapes hiding in the shadow.

A loud squawk came as his vision tumbled and turned violently and he felt something at his chest. Eyes snapping open, he took off into the open after Rikki, only to find him snapping his beak at a white creature with large ears, about his own size.

“What is that? Is it someone’s daemon? Show yourself!” Sokka called, club raised in preparation for a fight at the same time as Aang calling out excitedly.

“Lemur! You're going to be my new pet.”

The flying lemur clearly did not appreciate this idea, as he took off racing out of the sanctuary immediately. Aang protested loudly and chased after the creature onto the cliff, using airbending to cushion his leaps down jagged rock edges of the temples, soon out of range of Mags’s warning calls for him to come back and not wander off.

“Hey! Come back!” Aang called out as the lemur finally showed signs of slowing, “Come on out, little lemur!” He peeled open the drapes it had lead him to, not really mindful of where he was going. He knew these temples better than the top of his own bald head anyway, it would be rather impossible for him to get lost.

His quest to capture the lemur was sidetracked by the sight in front of him. Scattered across the room were several sets of skeletons, body long decayed save for the faded Fire Nation insignia on the fabric of their uniforms.

“Firebenders? They were here?” He questioned aloud, stomach falling with the sudden recollection of what Katara had been trying to tell him on his way here.

It was then he noticed the solitary set of skeleton curled in the corner, and in that moment it was as if the world had stopped spinning. Still sporting the wooden beaded necklace Aang couldn’t mistake for anything else in the world, still clad in the yellow monk robes symbolising a culture the old man had loved and took pride in during life, and most probably in death, too—

“Gyatso.” Aang barely whispered, devastated.

* * *

_“Aang needs to have freedom and fun. He needs to grow up as a normal boy.” Gyatso said amicably enough, though behind his warm and peaceful voice laid an undercurrent of fierce protection he had always managed to conjure up for his Aang._

_“You cannot keep protecting him from his destiny.” The monk with the buzzard daemon said with an air of warning, as the others chimed in._

_“Gyatso, I know you mean well, but you are letting your affection for the boy cloud your judgment.” Accused the orang-utan of another monk, as Gyatso sighed, sensing a lost cause against the stern decision of the others. _Couldn’t they see, _he wondered, _that training and weaponising the boy who had no choice in being the Avatar to engage in the affairs of the world was betraying their most sacred Air Nomad philosophy? More importantly, they were betraying Aang? One of their own to whom they were supposed to teach the way of peace?

_“All I want is what is best for him.” He protested, a hand resting lightly on his baboon._

_“But what we need is what's best for the world. You and Aang must be separated. The Avatar will be sent away to the Eastern Air Temple to complete his training.” The orang-utan’s human decided with finality._

_Later, he would wait until the rest of the temple had been asleep before making his way to Aang’s chambers he’d been moved to when the rest of the children got too old, too aware of questions like _why didn’t Aang have a daemon _and _why wasn’t he in lessons with them anymore. _He would pad into the room, knowing the young Avatar too well to expect him to be asleep, not making a sound as he drew upon airbending to push the door open, assurance ready on his lips._

_“Aang, I'm not going to let them take you away from me.” He promised before the bed even came into view, relieved he didn’t hear crying. That relief, however, soon turned into dread when he realised that _he hadn’t heard anything at all._ “Aang?” He tried again._

_All that had been left for him was a scroll, a hastily scrawled out message reading _“Thank you, Gyatso, you were the best master I could have asked for and you taught me everything I know. Don’t worry - Appa will take good care of me. (I’m sorry I let you down).”_ In the handwriting of a pupil who had never quite completed his calligraphy training._

_He told himself that Aang just needed a little time to himself, that eventually he would come back to him, and he could finish his trainings - he’d fight the monks if he had to, break every oath he had took and every philosophy he had read as a pacifist Aird Nomad, just for the right to finish Aang’s training himself - and have the privilege of watching him grow into the shoes of a respectable Avatar._

_But days had past and no words of the young airbender has reached any of the other temples, and he did not make it back to theirs, either. Gyatso began to regret not having gone to stop him earlier. _What had he to hide, waiting until everyone was asleep? _He berated himself for his hesitation, for his delay, and wondered if he would ever see his student again._

_When the Fire Nation came a month later, however, he thanked all the spirits he could name with his dying breath that Aang wasn’t here. Not for the world, not for the Avatar, but for Aang, for his little airbender boy with his bright eyes and toothy smile._

_He never did see his Aang again._

* * *

It was Sokka who found Aang in the end, a knot of worry forming in his stomach as he took in the surroundings of littered bones and Fire Nation symbols, amidst which crouched a little boy with a slight frame, his hand buried in his face. 

“Oh, man.” He remarked, stepping forward to tug the boy’s shoulder gently. “Come on, Aang. Everything will be all right. Let's get out of here.”

This had, apparently been the wrong thing to say, as Aang’s tattoos began to glow blue like the previous time in the South Pole’s waters. The air around him started swirling and balling rapidly, and with a crash the roof of the temple flew off under the stare of glowing white eyes. Before he could react, Sokka found himself tossed out of the room and into a wall.

“Aang!” His sister’s voice called out, “What happened?” She asked Sokka, while Mags lunged forward to grab a spinning Rikki by his neck between his jaws to steady him.

“He found out firebenders killed Gyatso!” Sokka explained in his haste, still largely disoriented.

“I'm going to try and calm him down!” Katara said, making her way into the tornado that had wrapped itself firmly around the young Avatar.

“Katara no, it’s too dangerous!” Rikki called out in concern.

“Let her.” Mags decided, though his gaze looked fretful as well as he watched Katara slowly advancing towards Aang, inching forward himself as the distance between them grew.

* * *

They had been packed to go when the lemur that had led them all into this commotion reappeared, laying a wide assortment of fruits onto the ground in front of Sokka, who immediately snatched up two closest ones in each hand and started stuffing his face. He had forgotten about his hunger while busy fearing for his life by the hands of the avatar state, but the sensation returned the minute he laid eyes on food.

“Looks like you made a new friend Sokka!” Aang chirped, slightly happier, though his voice hasn’t lost the heaviness to it.

“Can't talk!” Sokka exclaimed through the peach in his mouth, “must eat!”

Rikki looked on at him human, disgusted. “Really Sokka,” He said dryly, “you have negative grace when it comes to food.”

“You, me and Appa, we're all that's left of this place.” Aang said in a poignant tone, looking on at the ruins of the temple, feeling more ancient than ever. Then, turning to where Katara and Sokka stood, he announced, “say hello to the newest member of our family.”

Katara, unsurprisingly, frowned in consideration. “Are you sure, Aang? It’s going to be a hard and dangerous journey ahead, and we can’t divert attention to looking after an animal.”

“Lemurs are very trainable!” Aang assured, practically begging, “plus, you have Mags and Sokka has Rikki, I know I have Appa but he’s kind of different, I’d like a smaller companion by my side!”

“Hey, that’s actually not a bad idea.” It was Mags who spoke up in Aang’s defence after much pondering, “we will probably need disguises at some point, and he would need a daemon to fly under the radar as Avatar. The whole ‘my daemon’s small and shy’ ruse can work short-term, but it’s good to have options.”

“Fine.” Katara conceded, admitting as well that this could have its advantages, “What are you going to name him?”

Aang looked at the lemur, _his_ lemur now, nibbling on a peach happily at Sokka’s shoulder, and decided, “Momo.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously though, how does 20 minute episodes consistently turn into 2-3k chapters? This fic is definitely turning out much longer than I thought it would.
> 
> Gyatso's daemon is a baboon, no I most certainly did *not* rip that off from The Lion King, what are you talking about? (I totally did). Also I did not intend for this whole chapter to turn into an angst fest but hey who doesn't like to cry as a hobby? Keen fans will notice part of the flashback was from The Storm, a later episode in S1, but since I don't plan on featuring that episode I figured I could use it here.
> 
> thank the WORLD for Avatar transcript over at fandom wiki! I love those people and do not know what I'd do without those.


	3. Stuck in the Fighting

* * *

Back in the casing, shaking and pacing,  
This is the tunnel's light.  
Blood in the writing, stuck in the fighting,  
Look through the rifle's sight.

* * *

They had been sitting on Appa’s back for the better part of the day now, everyone tolerating Aang’s increasingly desperate attempts to impress Katara with his dumb marble tricks. Everyone except Katara herself, who was deep in concentration on the task at hand, that is.

“For the love of the spirits, can you please _stop_?” Mags snapped, perhaps a little too harshly, causing Aang’s face to drop as he pocketed his marbles.

“Yeah, stop bugging her, airhead!” Sokka chimed in, “you need to give girls space when they do their sewing.”

This caught Katara’s attention at last, as she looked up to glare daggers at her brother. “What does me being a _girl_ have to do with sewing?” She demanded. Rikki let out a low whistle that could only mean _you started something you really should not have started,_ which was promptly ignored by his human, who happily elaborated in his obnoxious ignorance.

“Simple. Girls are better at fixing pants than guys and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that.” He said, nodding wisely.

“All done with your pants! And look what a great job I did!” Katara smiled sarcastically, tossing the unfinished project back to Sokka and ignoring his pleas to finish patching the hole in his trousers. His duck watched the scene unfold with amusement, while Mags shook his head in exasperation.

* * *

It turned out that incident hadn’t been the end to the social debate for that day either, because as they found themselves ambushed in the woods and tied to a statue after Aang had decided to make a pit stop on an island so he could ride some elephant kois and battle the Unagi (okay, maybe that second part wasn’t planned), the first thing Sokka had to say when he opened his stupid mouth was “there’s no way that a bunch of girls took us down.”

Mags, who had been pinned down by three meerkats, groaned loudly from the ground. Infuriating as her brother was, however, Katara still felt nervous on his behalf when the girl-warrior took the comment exactly how she should have (not well) and threatened to toss him to the giant water monster.

“No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it. My brother is just an idiot sometimes.” She called out.

Fortunately though, no one had to get fed to the Unagi, as after some slight hiccoughs and Rikki quacking out “Aang! Where are those ridiculous marble tricks of yours when they actually matter?” From under the paws of another daemon, Aang managed to prove that he was the airbender Avatar, and they were welcomed into the village with enthusiasm entirely opposite to the initial attitude they faced.

Not being in danger of getting devoured by a giant saltwater monster did not improve Sokka’s mood the next morning, as his chopsticks hovered above the biggest assortment of treats and dishes laid out for a breakfast that was fit for a royalty.

“He's just upset because a bunch of girls kicked his butt yesterday.” Rikki announced teasingly, when Aang and Katara questioned him on what was wrong.

“_Rikki,_ what have we said about betraying me feelings like that?”

“Your face does it well enough that I needn’t bother?” Rikki jabbed with feigned innocence, earning a high five from Mags. Unfortunately, this meant the entire room was subjected to the confusing sight of the fox standing up on his hind legs and the duck flapping up a few centimetres off the floor, and flip-kicking the fox in his front paws.

“Uhh,” Aang questioned, baffled by the ritual, “w_hat_ was that?”

“That is their idea of a high five.” Katara explained, clearly not seeing it for the first time. “For the record, neither Sokka or I approve of this, but they _wouldn’t _stop.”

“Anyway,” Sokka continued loudly, having recovered enough from the insult from his own daemon and eager to bring the attention back onto himself, “Sneak attacks don't count as getting one’s butt kicked! And I'm not scared of any girls, in fact, I'll show them a thing or two. Who do they think they are anyway?”

“Right.” Mags drawled at Sokka’s back when the latter exited the room, clearly skeptical that Sokka was capable of _showing_ the Kyoshi warriors anything. “Just don’t do or say anything stupid to get us in trouble.” 

“And you too, Aang,” Katara added right after her daemon, “don't get too comfortable. It's risky for us to stay in one place for very long.”

* * *

Sokka threw open the doors and waltzed into the training session, with Rikki waddling along faithfully at his tail, somewhat shy. “Sorry ladies, didn't mean to interrupt your dance lesson.” He said in a condescending tone which clearly indicated that he did, in fact, mean to interrupt very much, and that he knew crystal clear this was not a dance lesson, “I was just looking for somewhere to get a little workout?” 

“Well, you're in the right place.” The girl who made the Unagi threat the day before spoke up, clearly the leader around here. “Sorry about yesterday. I didn't know that you were friends with the Avatar.”

“It's all right. I mean, normally I'd hold a grudge, but seeing as you guys are a bunch of _girls_, I'll make an exception.”

“I should hope so. A big strong man like you? We wouldn't stand a chance.” Suki, the leader, complimented fawningly, in an over-the-top, sickly sweet tone.

“True. But don't feel bad. After all, I'm the best warrior in my village.” Sokka boasted, letting the insult completely fly over his head in his sudden narcissistic episode.

“That was_ clearly _sarcasm, you dolt.” Rikki snapped at his human loudly, with no concerns about keeping the conversation private. Then, as if he decided this wasn’t insult enough, he turned to the general audience of the room, and elaborated, “and he’s the _only_ warrior in his village.”

The girls in the room giggled as Sokka flushed red, glaring furiously at his duck and silently questioning _why do you always take other people’s side over mine? _The duck held his gaze defiantly in a way that said _because you’re always the _idiot _in every scenario._

“Wow! Best warrior, huh?” Suki prompted, ignoring the daemon’s elaboration, “In your whole village? Maybe you'd be kind enough to give us a little demonstration.”

Any simple-minded person would have seen right through the obvious trap. But unfortunately for them, Rikki noted, Sokka was not just_ any_ simple-minded person. He was Chief Simple-Minded Person of the Simple-Minded Person Lands. So he took his stance, and instructed Suki to try and block him. _This is going to go down well,_ the duck thought grimly.

Around the sixth or seventh time Sokka was knocked down to the ground with a grunt, the show stopped being amusing and readily deteriorated into cringeworthy. The Kyoshi warriors obviously shared the same view, for in one swift game-ending move, Suki loosened Sokka's belt and tied his left hand to his right foot behind his back, making it abundantly clear that she had not been giving anything near all her efforts in holding her own against Sokka.

“Anything else you want to teach us?” She mocked in the same condescending tone as his when he first stepped into the room. _Ouch,_ Rikki thought, though knowing Sokka was way out of line, he still felt sympathy for his human, who took the final blow to his ego when Suki bent down to release his hand and foot.

“My daemon could have done that.” He hear Sokka grumble.

“It seems your daemon at least has a sense of modesty and conscience.” Suki told him coldly, “Which is the only reason I’m going easy on beating your up this time.”

_Yet another time he’s saved his humans butt, _Rikki puffed his chest smugly as he followed a dejected Sokka, head bowed and dragging his feet, out of the dojo.

“That was humiliating!” Sokka growled, flicking a foot up to kick at the dirt outside the training gym. “That was even more humiliating than yesterday. “I can't believe I got beat up by a bunch of girls. _Again._”

“What does them being girls have to do with anything?” Rikki asked, finally deciding to bring up the subject that had been the source of the majority of conflicts his human had gotten himself into for the past could days.

“Well, you know,” Sokka spluttered lamely, “_girls aren’t meant to be fighters_”

“Sokka, you and I should know better than anyone that gender doesn’t mean anything.” Rikki prompted softly. “Hadn’t dad always told us that ours didn’t make us any different? What makes you think this doesn’t apply to everyone else?”

Sokka stared at his daemon in his sudden bout of wisdom. It wasn’t often Rikki dropped his facade of sarcasm and jest to reveal just how sensitive and thoughtful he could be, not even in their private moments with just the two of them. He supposed that to others, he must seem the same. _After all, he and Rikki are one._

“Okay.” He conceded, “maybe you’re right. Still, it doesn’t make it any better. I _am_ supposed to be the best warrior of the entire South Pole, only warrior or not, and dad trusted me to protect our village! First I got beaten by a Fire Nation teenager, then I couldn’t even get one hit on Earth Kingdom warriors! How can I protect anyone when I couldn’t hold my own against anything that comes our way?”

“You’ve never had anyone to teach you proper fighting beyond the basics of self defence you learnt up until you were twelve,” Rikki reminded him, “but Sokka, _you do now_.”

Sokka snorted softly at this. “Who, Aang? I admit, he’s an impressive fighter, but most of his moves comes from airbending and I hardly think that—”

“No, not Aang.” Rikki cut him off, looking back in the direction the sounds of slaps and punches and fan swipes were still coming from, just a few steps away from them.

“_Them?_” The human demanded incredulously.

“What, still hung up on the fact that they’re girls?”

“No, not that, it’s just,” Sokka deflated, voice getting smaller, “I think I messed up my chances with them. Why would they have me back in that room, let alone teach me, after the way I treated them? I was condescending and rude and disrespectful and— and _wrong._”

“So you tell them that.” Rikki advised him, nudging him gently to his feet, “you swallow that pride of yours and you _apologise_.”

* * *

“I think I'm starting to get it!” Sokka declared with what concentration he could spare from following the steps of meticulous movements aided by the fan in his hand. “Ta!” He finished the routine with a flourish, forgetting said fan still grasped loosely in his hand, which flew out as he swung his arm suddenly, and hit the tree outside the practice room.

Suki chuckled lightly, then instructed, “It's not about strength. Our technique is about using your opponents' force against them. Loosen up. Think of the fan as an extension of your arm, wait for an opening and then—“

As she moved forward with her own fan, Sokka’s instincts took over, guiding him to side-step Suki’s offence and retaliate, knocking her to the ground. As surprised as she was, he grinned and cocked his head at her teasingly.

“I fell on purpose to make you feel better!” Suki scrambled to her feet, unwilling to admit defeat.

“I got you! Admit I got you!” Sokka yelled, though his voice lacked the arrogance it sported before, morphed into genuine giddy excitement as he pointed a finger at the girl, who grabbed it and twisted it in her embarrassment, making the Water Tribe boy grunt in pain.

“Okay, okay, it was a lucky shot.” The medium sized animal with a long bushy tail and pointed snout, whom Rikki recognised to be the one to pin him down on their first day here, strolled up to them and said amicably, causing Suki to roll her eyes at him.

“Sokka, meet Eimhin, my daemon.”

Sokka nodded towards the daemon at Suki’s feet. “Good meet you. And this is Taliriktug, my daemon. I call him Rikki.” Seeing this as his cue, Rikki waddled over from the sidelines, circling the other lean animal with caution.

“He?” Suki asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, he’s a guy, has been since birth.” Sokka delivered his well-rehearsed speech. Though never having left the South Pole before, he still had to explain this more times than he could count. “Don’t know why it happens, probably doesn’t mean anything, very rare, or so I’ve been told.”

“Well, that makes the blatant sexism you displayed earlier—”

“Stupid, I know. I guess I just never thought about it like that until Rikki reminded me himself, and now I guess I kind of see how much of a hypocrite I was being, advocating gender norms and all.”

“I was going to say understandable.” Suki offered once Sokka had finished his little rant, “you were probably just subconsciously overcompensating for the prejudice and difference you no doubt feel all the time. But yeah, stupid works. And if I ever hear you disrespect girls like that again…”

Eimhin barked at Sokka from beside Suki’s feet, baring his sharp teeth and glaring straight at the boy, who shuddered at the intimidation, earning another short laugh for the Kyoshi girl.

“Now, let's see if you can do what you did again.”

* * *

It had been Mags who spotted the Fire Nation ship first, having stalked off for as far as he could manage when he could no longer tolerate the drama between his human and Aang, and wanted to enjoy some alone time in the woods near where Katara was, trying to get said airbender out of the water before he was devoured by the Unagi.

“I want the Avatar _alive._” He heard the unmistakably unpleasant voice of the prince. Creeping closer to its source, he saw a pack of komodo rhinos mounted by Fire Nation soliders, and none other than Zuko leading them. Without hesitation, Mags turned to run back and warn his human.

“Zuko!” He hissed, “Katara, we have to get out of here, it’s the Fire— why is Aang on the floor?” He asked, seeing Katara crouched over the small boy who was dripping wet and unconscious. What he said registered with the waterbender girl, who turned and shook Aang with urgency.

“Katara…” He stirred, much to the relief of the girl in question, “don't ride the Unagi. Not fun.”

Mags decided that he didn’t want to know.

“I guess training's over.” Sokka mumbled to Rikki, still clad in the Kyoshi uniform-dress and wearing full-faced makeup, before charging into the fight with his fan at the ready.

Fireballs flew, flashes of green whizzed passed him as Kyoshi warriors ran past, targeting rhinos and their riders alike. At some point, he ended up crouching behind a wooden house, painfully aware of his sister and Aang fighting their ways toward the flying bison, and Suki beside him, both of their makeups smeared by sweat.

“There's no time to say goodbye.”

“What about, ‘I'm sorry’? I treated you like a girl when I should've treated you like a warrior.”

“I _am_ a warrior.” Suki smiled softly, and leaned forward to kiss Sokka on the cheek. “But I'm a girl, too.” She reminded him. Eimhin padded over to Rikki and licked him once, mirroring his human’s gesture of affection, before Sokka picked the latter up and took off running to his escape.

“We’ll see them again, right?” Rikki asked from between his arm, hopeful.

“Yeah.” Sokka assured both himself and his daemon in between pants, “Yeah, I have a feeling we will, soon enough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suki's daemon, Eimhin (ay-van, because Irish names are *weird*) is a white-tailed mongoose (they are awesome!) and his name means "swift" or "prompt"
> 
> I was really happy with how this chapter turned out! Much more daemon action and originality than the previous two, the train of tis fit has finally departed "script rewrite and lines re-allocation" station. I'm working on another packed chapter next, where SIX new daemons will be introduced! Can you guess which episode is coming? :)


	4. Man on a Mission

* * *

A man on a mission,changing the vision,  
I was never welcome here.  
We don't have a choice to stay,  
We'd rather die than do it your way.

* * *

The pack foraged in the woods together for berries, nuts, mushrooms, or anything that can be fed to the strictly vegetarian monk, who continually refused the fish and possum chickens Rikki and Mags easily hunted down for them at every pit stop. Spotting a stack of neatly stacked fruits, Momo made a dash for them and ended up unceremoniously caught in a trap.

“These are Fire Nation traps.” Sokka noted, after freeing the lemur and the host of other animals that had been trapped as well, “we better get moving.”

The others nodded and complied, long used to being on constant alert and making swift exits at the first sign of potential danger. Aang airbent himself onto Appa’s back and took over the supplies Katara handed to him from the ground.

“No flying this time.” Sokka interrupted suddenly, mentally kicking himself for not thinking of this earlier. “Think about it, somehow Prince Zuko keeps finding us. It can only be because of Appa, he's just too noticeable.”

“What? Appa's not too noticeable!” Katara challenged incredulously.

“He's a gigantic fluffy monster with an arrow on his head! It's kinda hard to miss him!” Rikki piped in, actually backing up his human for once, earning himself a glance equal parts grateful and surprised from Sokka. “I’m with him on this one.”

“Who made you two the boss?” Katara grumbled unhappily.

“I'm not the boss, I'm the leader.” Sokka declared, “and my instincts tell me we have a better chance of slipping through on foot, a leader has to trust his instincts.”

If he had known this would start a chain of running jokes directed at him for the next couple of hours as they walked through the woods, Sokka would definitely not have said it. They made their way through the vast Earth Kingdom forest, brushing branches out of their faces, leaves crunching under their boots, and quipping about Sokka’s “leadership instincts”.

“You know who you should ask to carry the pack for a while?” Katara nudged Aang, her tone indicating she wasn’t about to make an honest suggestion.

“Sokka's instincts.” Mags finished for her, joining in with the fun. Sokka turned to glare at them both venomously. _He was just trying to keep them safe, why did they have to be so difficult about it?_ He wanted to fire back, but held his tongue knowing it would only provoke their teasing further.

“That's a great idea. Hey, Sokka's instincts, would you mind—”

At least, he wanted to, but when Aang chimed in as well - Katara was a bad influence on the boy - he decided to put an end to it all, cutting the young monk off irritably.

“Okay, okay, I get it. Look guys, I'm tired too. But at least we're safe from the Fire ... Nation. Run!” Walking past a bush and right into a Fire Nation unit’s camp, Sokka finished his sentence lamely and made to run.

They were quickly surrounded despite Sokka’s warnings, and his mind scrambled as he desperately tried to figure a way out of this mess that they stumbled into as easily as Momo stumbled into that trap. Except, he supposed, this one wasn’t even laid out intentionally for them.

Suddenly, though, a voice called out from above the trees and before they knew it, Fire Nation soldiers started dropping like flies. The unknown fighters were swift and agile, using the element of surprise to jump soldier after soldier, while their daemons - lynxes, ocelots, and a couple large dogs - were trampled by deers and foxes and raccoons. The entire ‘battle’, if it can even be called that, lasted minutes.

“Hey.” Said one of the fighters, approaching Katara with a red fox at his side. Now that everyone has stopped moving, they could see that these were no trained warriors, but children dressed in mismatched clothes and clutching makeshift weapons. The one who just spoke, taking a stance that indicated he was their leader, looked to be barely older than Sokka himself. “My name is Jet. This is my daemon Morrigan, and these are my Freedom Fighters.”

After the Freedom Fighters had finished looting the camp, the group decided to head back to what they called their ‘hideout’ in the trees. Katara accepted the invite to see it despite Sokka’s reluctance, and soon they found themselves amidst zip-lines and wooden platforms, nestled safely out of view and in the protection of the scarlet autumn leaves.

“It's beautiful ... and more importantly the Fire Nation can't find us.” Jet explained proudly while going about setting up dinner for his group of kids and the guests. They sat around the table lit dimly by candlelight, and made small talk quietly.

“So, you all live here?” Katara asked tentatively.

“That's right. I gathered each of my kids when they had lost their homes and had nowhere to go. Here, we forged a new identity free from the pains of our past lives. They all chose new names to represent who they are, and Morrigan,” Het gestured to the fox at his side, “named their daemons, just as a parent’s daemon name their newborn children’s.

“Longshot here, his town got burned down by the Fire Nation.” He gestured to the quiet boy with the bow, who looked like he was around Sokka’s age. At the mention of his name, Longshot lifted his head from his bowl of rice and nodded solemnly at them without speaking, and they noticed the chameleon daemon perched on his shoulder, equally silent. “that’s his daemon, Skathia. Neither of them speak much.

“We found The Duke trying to steal our food. I don't think he ever really had a home. He’s only eight, the youngest we have, but he fights fiercer than any Fire Nation scum. We named his daemon Zivah. And Smellerbee, she’s been with me the longest, you could even say we founded the Freedom Fighters together. Her daemon, Eleutherius, is the true representation of freedom.”

The girl with short, bushy hair looked down and blushed when Jet made the introduction, while Eleutherius, to demonstrate what he meant, flew down from the wooden beams on the ceiling of the treehouse as a magpie and shifted into a small harvest mouse upon landing onto the table. “He’s fifteen, but still unsettled. Jet likes to say that it’s because he doesn’t like to be confined even by his own form.” Smellerbee explained quietly.

“And the hare over there, Calliope, is the daemon of Sneers. And Pipsqueak’s daemon,” Jet continued the introduction, gesturing at the large boy Aang had previously mistaken with The Duke, “is down on the ground. Yseult and Pipsqueak became separated when their town was attacked by soliders, he was chased out but Yseult got held back. It almost killed them.”

When his silence indicated that Jet was done, a silence overtook the group as Aang and Katara tried to meet the gaze of each Freedom Fighter, passing a wordless _nice to meet you _to them.

“What about you?” Katara prompted softly.

Jet squeezed his eyes shut and didn’t answer, evidently finding it harder to explain the story when it had been his own past. Just as Katara was about to add that it was okay if he didn’t want to say, however, Morrigan spoke up.

“The Fire Nation killed our family. We were only eight years old. That day changed us forever.”

“I’m sorry,” Mags offered quietly, gaze level with Morrigan, fox to fox. “My brother and I lost our mother to the Fire Nation too. I’m Mags, by the way, Maguyuk. The duck over there is Rikki.”

“Taliriktug.” Rikki mumbled just loud enough for the rest of the group to hear, clearly sharing his human’s distrust and unhappiness with the whole situation.

“I like your forms.” Jet offered to the both of them, though clearly directed more at Katara, causing her to blush furiously. “It’s good to meet a fellow fox. And where’s your daemon?”

“Oh, me?” Aang asked with a start, realising he was being addressed. He cast an uncertain glance at Momo, but decided to be truthful this time round. “I’m Avatar Aang. I don’t have a daemon.”

“Avatar huh?” If Jet had been surprised or reacted to this information at all, he hid it remarkably well. “_Very _nice. I’ve heard about Avatars not having a daemon, though I couldn’t imagine that being pleasant, no offence. I don’t know what I’d do without Morrigan.”

The red fox in question licked Jet’s hand softly.

“Uh, thanks, Jet?” Aang replied, uncertain about how to respond. Fortunately, Jet changed the subject quickly, looking at Katara once more.

“So I might know a way that you and Aang can help in our struggle.”

Before he could elaborate, however, Sokka stood up abruptly, “Unfortunately, we have to leave tonight.” Sokka announced angrily, picking his duck up by the belly and made to leave.

“Sokka, are you kidding?” Morrigan said in a convincingly smooth and enticing tone, “I needed you on an important mission tomorrow.”

This stopped the Water Tribe boy in his tracks, as he turned back and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. He looked down at Rikki, who sported the same _this is probably bad news _look on his face, before asking “what mission…?” carefully.

* * *

Sokka and Rikki had already returned from their morning mission when Katara and Aang found him, sitting on a lower platform in the extensive web of a structure Jet and his group of kids had managed to construct with surprising skill, sulking.

“Your boyfriend Jet's a thug.” Rikki announced angrily.

“What? No, he's not!” Katara shot back, either ignoring the _boyfriend_ jab in favour of the bigger argument at hand, or missing it completely, “I expected this kind of behaviour from Sokka, but _you_, Rikki? I thought you were on our side. Weren’t you just teasing him yesterday?”

“How many times do I have to explain? I’m on the _right_ side, always. And in this case, it’s Sokka’s. I saw the whole thing: he beat and robbed a harmless old man! He’s messed up. I'm sorry Katara. Jet's very smooth, but we can't trust him.”

“You know what I think? Your _human_ is jealous that Jet's a better warrior and a better leader! And _you_ take his side because you can’t deal with the fact that Morrigan has a much cooler form!” It was a low blow at the both of them, she knew that as soon as the words left her mouth, but she had been too stubborn to back down.

Sokka looked up in surprise, shocked that his sister would defend the _obviously up-to-no-good_ bandit with such cruel words. For a moment he felt tempted to rise to the argument and shout back, but something tells him it was more important to get his sister to see sense before people potentially get hurt.

“Katara, I'm not jealous of Jet. It's just that my instinct—” he started as reasonably as he could, but Katara had clearly not decided to afford him the same courtesy.

“Well _my_ instincts tell me I want to hear Jet’s side of the story.” His sister declared, cutting him off, before storming away.

* * *

“Now listen, you are not to blow the dam until I give the signal. If the reservoir isn't full, the Fire Nation troops could survive.” Jet instructed carefully to the children standing in front of him in a gentle, but authoritative voice.

“But what about the people in the town, won't they get wiped out too?” The Duke’s daemon, who took the form of a rabbit, asked in a soft voice from the tight clutch of the boy.

“Ziv,” Jet knelt down to rest his hand on The Duke’s arm, just shy of the furs on the rabbit, and explained with a kindness he hadn’t show to the occupants of the village they were about to destroy, “that's the price of ridding this area of the Fire Nation. Now don't blow the dam until I give the signal—got it?”

There was a rustling in the bushes, and in a flurry of movements, Smellerbee promptly had a knife pressed up against Sokka’s throat, while her daemon, now shifted into a large black mink, dragged Rikki out of the bushes they’d been hiding in by the neck, quacking infernally.

“I heard your plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom town. There are people living there, Jet! Mothers and fathers and children.” Sokka accused, cutting straight to the chase.

“We can't win without making some sacrifices.” Morrigan’s smooth voice replied cooly.

“You lied to Aang and Katara and Mags about the forest fire!” Rikki yelled, an unspoken _you turned them against us, their own brothers_, hung in the air between them.

“I was hoping you'd have an open mind, but I can see you've made your choice.” Jet shrugged, his face still bank and unresponsive to the horror Sokka expressed at his plan. “I can't let you warn the others. Take him for a walk, a long walk.” He instructed, looking at Smellerbee and Pipsqueak pointedly.

They whisked him away with the knife still at his back, and had only made it a couple steps away when Rikki stopped and flapped his wings, demanding to be carried. Sokka obliged, picking his daemon up.

“Psst, Sokka! The traps!” Rikki craned his neck to whisper in his human’s ear, who noticed two of the same traps as what Momo had stumbled into, stacked cleanly with lychee nuts. They nodded subtly at each other, and made a run for it, jumping out of the mechanisms’ way and hearing two clean snaps behind them.

Sokka turned around to see Pipsqueak and Yseult hung from one net, the large boy and doe cramped uncomfortably in the trap, and Smellerbee dangling from the other trap, her Eleutherius barely making it though the gaps in the netting, perched as a magpie on a nearby branch, not being able to go far enough to chase the escaped prisoners.

He made a run for the dam, only to be stopped by his own daemon. “No! You have to get Appa and get to the village, there’s no time.”

“But we have to stop the village from getting destroyed!”

“We’ll just have to trust Aang, Katara, and Mags to come through for us, saving lives is what matters when all else fails.” Sokka decided to trust his daemon on that one, and together they headed for the bison.

Convincing everyone to evacuate their house on a perfectly normal day without warning went down about as easily as one would expect. Soon, Fire Nation soldiers and Earth Kingdom farmers alike had him surrounded, people were yelling at each other and pointing fingers.

“Everyone listen!” Sokka’s voice boomed, almost pleading, “I _could_ be wrong, yes, and there’s a chance people are already working to prevent the flood, but even if there’s the slightest chance the dam _might_ break, wouldn’t it be wiser to evacuate, just in case? You can always come back if nothing happens, but if something does, it’ll be too late to get out.”

The crowd descended into chaos once more as he felt something sharp jab into his side for the second time that day, the soldiers began whisking him away and he thought _no, no, no. I’ve come all this way, I can’t fail these people now._

“Listen to the kid.” A voice spoke up, Sokka whirled around and almost cried out with relief at the familiar face of the old man in the woods. “Those bandits robbed me on my way here. This kid defended me against them. If anyone knows what atrocities they are up to now, it’s him.”

They barely evacuated everyone out in an orderly fashion onto elevated grounds when the waters came, to the audible gasp of the villagers.

* * *

“Why, Jet? I can't believe I trusted you. You lied to me, you're sick and I trusted you!”

They got to the dam just in time to learn of Jet’s plan, and the fight broke out almost immediately. Jet held his own against the unrelenting waterbending attacks of Katara and Aang ducking in and out of the trees simultaneously, while Mags took on Morrigan in a flurry of fur and fangs. The former had been shedding his winter coat for a couple weeks now as they headed into warmer climate, and the white hair came off in clumps between the red fox’s teeth, until the latter was fighting a menacing grey fox.

Eventually, Katara let out a chilling breath and encased Jet, attached a tree, completely in ice. Mags had cornered the larger fox long enough to be immobilised as well. Suddenly, a birdcall sounded in the distance, and Morrigan tilted her head back to let out a series of short, high pitched barks by way of signal.

“You're too late.” Jet whispered smugly, as the sound of explosion went off in the distance and they could only watch the walls break down and water - _water Aang and Katara had bent out of the ground themselves -_ rushed towards the unmoving town.

“This was a victory, Katara.” Jet pressed on with his promise, “remember that. The Fire Nation is gone and this valley will be safe.”

“It will be safe, without you.” Rikki’s quacked voice rung out as Appa stomped into sight. “I warned the villagers of your plan, just in time.”

“You what?” Jet barked. Beside him, his fox bared her teeth at the other teenaged boy, yowling angrily. “Sokka, you fool! We could've freed this valley! You traitor!”

“No, Jet. You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people. Even if your plan had worked, who would be free? Everyone would be dead.” Sokka said, turning to leave.

“Goodbye, Jet.” Mags said softly as he turned to walk up Appa’s tail.

* * *

“We thought you were going to the dam. How come you went to the town instead?” Aang asked happily as soon as they were in the air.

“Let me guess, your instincts told you.” Katara half-teased, somewhat apologetically.

“Naw, he wishes he had instincts this wise! It was me.” Rikki piped, earning a chuckle from all passengers on the flying bison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you made it this far, please leave a comment! Am working hard on the last chapter (that will feature at last a reappearance of your favourite birb!) of this work for your guys and would appreciate any encouragement :)
> 
> Behind the names:
> 
> Jet's daemon is a red fox, because I like on-the-nose references to that one Robin Hood movie. Her name is Morrigan, after the Irish goddess of war and death, who was known to be a great and powerful leader, and a dark terror (fitting, no?)
> 
> Smellerbee's daemon is called Eleutherius, (eh-loo-thee-rius) which means "the liberator" in greek, an epithet of the god Dionysus
> 
> Longshot's daemon is a chameleon, her name is Skathia, named after Skaði, the norse goodess of archery and hunting.
> 
> Sneers's daemon is a forest hare named Calliope (ka-lee-o-pee), the head muse of greek mythology.
> 
> Pipsqueak's daemon is a fallow doe, Yseult is the variation of Isolde, from the legend Tristan and Isolde
> 
> The Duke's daemon Zivah is a Hebrew name meaning "brightness" and "radiance"
> 
> I like to think little Jet hears these myths and legends from his mum when he was little, and later Morrigan named the daemons after the fantastical, exotic characters in memory of his mother.


	5. Backs to the Wall

* * *

With our backs to the wall,  
The darkness will fall,  
We never quite thought we could lose it all.  
Ready, aim, fire, ready, aim, fire away.

* * *

Katara pulled up the water in front of her, and froze it into a smooth pillar of ice. Standing behind it, she shaved off disc after disc with her bending and unleashed the spirt world’s full fury onto the old man standing metres away. She did _not_ come all this way across the world, battle pirates and Fire Nation soldiers, and fought her way out after being kidnapped multiple times just to be turned away at the doorsteps of the Northern Water Tribe by a pedantic, archaic, _sexist_ old man.

One disc of ice cut dangerously close to Master Pakku, serving as the wake up call the waterbending master needed to quit halfheartedly indulging the Southern Tribe girl and end this fight soon. Freezing the stream of water Katara sent gushing at him, he turned the liquid into a rain of ice shards cutting through the air, halting only millimetres away from her face.

“This fight is over.” He decided.

"Come back here. I'm not finished yet!” Katara yelled, struggling to prop herself up from the ground. As Pakku turned to leave, Mags sprung into action and leaped at the large heron daemon of Master Pakku, snapping at her neck.

The daemon gave a shrill cry and took off into the air. “That’s enough!” Pakku bellowed, “you’re done.” He declared with finality, stalking away under the angry glare of both Katara and Mags.

A glint in the snow caught his large bird’s attention as they walked past, in the struggle of fighting, Katara’s necklace had come loose and fallen off the girl’s neck, laying half-buried in the snow amidst the fight. Pakku followed his daemon’s gaze to the ground and stared at the jewellery, astounded.

“This is my necklace…” He whispered, turning back to look at Katara in shock.

* * *

“So, how does this thing work?” Yue asked, equal parts excited and concerned. She was sitting on the back of Appa, pressed to the front of the saddle and next to Sokka, who was gripping the rein confidently. 

“You holding on tight?” The Southern Tribe boy asked, looking back to check that Rikki and Guang, the white wolf that was Yue’s daemon, were in place. When the princess nodded in confirmation, Sokka gave Appa’s rein a single flick, and declared in the most dramatically smug tone, “yip…yip.”

Off they took soaring into the air, the ground rapidly shrinking beneath them until they overlooked the entire Northern Water Tribe, high above its snowy walls and carefully constructed palaces, and on the edge of a glimmering horizon.

“Oh my goodness!” Yue’s voice exclaimed as she absorbed the view from the edge of the saddle. "Wow, I can't believe you do this every day. Is it always this cold in the sky?”

“Not when you're with someone.” Sokka replied smoothly, opening his arm to let Yue press herself closer to him, sighing happily. Behind them Guang let out an equally elated bark and stuck out a tongue to lick Rikki’s head.

“It's beautiful up here.” She admitted.

Just as they began to enjoy themselves, floating aimlessly above the vast oceans until the icebergs were nothing more than white specks sprinkled against turquoise, the dark flakes began to fall in clumps.

“Oh no…” He muttered, tugging Appa back to land near the outskirt of the city, “I've seen this before, right before my village was attacked. It's soot mixed with snow.” He explained to a confused and oblivious Yue, while Rikki stood up and flapped his wings with alarm.

“But why?” Guang asked, clearly worried as well.

“It's the Fire Nation. They've closed in on the North Pole” Rikki informed them grimly.

“And from the looks of this stuff,” Sokka added, reaching down to scoop a handful of the greyish snow piled up on the ground, (why couldn’t he just have a nice time with a girl he likes _without_ the Fire Nation attempting to burn everything down to ashes for once?) “I’d say there's a lot of them.”

He took off running towards the city gates to warn the people, only to be pulled back by a gentle hand on his shoulder. “No, Sokka, wait,” she called, “I can't see you anymore. Not at all. I like you too much and it's too confusing to be around you. I'm marrying someone else.”

“You don't love him, do you? You don't even seem to like him.” Sokka accused weakly. On the ground, Rikki gave a soft quack, and Yue’s daemon had his tail pinned down, swaying from left to right in obvious distress.

“But I do love my people, and I have duties to my father, to my tribe. I have to do this.” She told him, before walking away and beating him to the city gates without a single glance back. The white wolf whined lowly, bowing his head.

“I’m sorry, goodbye.” He said to Rikki in a hushed tone.

The boy and his daemon stood side by side to watch the princess and her wolf leave. They didn’t say anything to each other, nor did they have to, for the unspoken sympathy and heartbreak hung in the air from the connection between them.

“Later.” It was Sokka who pulled himself together and snapped out of their trance. “We’ll deal with _feelings_ later. Right now, we have an invasion to stop.”

* * *

Zuko lurked in the shadow of the lifeboat room and stacked a reel of rope onto one of the small vessels, with the ocean waves beating through the escape hatch and onto the floor beside him rhythmically. He tensed and stilled when he heard the door creep open, but upon seeing the pale lioness that padded up beside him, relaxed and got on with his task at hand.

“And how, my nephew, are you planning on bringing your daemon with you from beneath the city?” The old man questioned carefully, kind voice devoid of any judgement or reproach.

“Hikari won’t be coming with me.” Zuko answered readily, having already considered every step of his plan several times in the abundance of alone time he had stowing away on Zhao’s war vessel. “She will fly above the city.”

“That is a dangerous plan, Zuko. You’ll be leaving your daemon defenceless and vulnerable to any attacks, not to mention you won’t have an idea of the distance below ground you’ll be. Even separated, it could be too great for you to bear.”

“We’ll be fine, Uncle.” The prince snapped, stubbornly defending his own plan. “This is the best plan we’ve got, and we’ll figure it out as we carry it out. We need to move fast, get in and out before Zhao launches his attack and things get messy.”

Iroh sighed, knowing better than anyone trying to persuade the stubborn and hurting teenager is pointless. _We’ll be fine_, he remembered his own Lu Ten uttering those words, with a smile on his lips and his father’s love, both useless against the monstrosities of war, marching off with his Meng’ao. _We’ll be fine,_ the last words his son had ever said to him.

“I’m sorry. I just nag you, because, well, ever since I lost my son, I think of you as my own.” He said instead. A father’s love may mean little in the name of protection, but he wished Zuko could see nonetheless that he’s had the thing he spent three years chasing all along.

“I know, Uncle.” Zuko whispered, voice softer now, though the rough edge of angst still not completely gone, “We'll meet again. After I have the Avatar.”

An unspoken when _you can be proud of me again_ hung in the air as he hugged the old man, and Hui Xin leant in to lick Hikari softly, ruffling her feathered wings.

They rowed out with Hikari perched on the edge of the boat in silence, navigating the ice and security and sweeps of spotlight. The moon showered down around them and lit their way closer to the North Pole city, and the finch could barely resist bursting into a soft song at the beauty of the white landscapes around her. _In another lifetime, _she thought, _she would share this sight with her human without the pressure and pain and fear, where they could truly appreciate the wonders of the world under their adolescent gaze._

“This is where I leave you.” Zuko’s voice jolted her back to reality. They stopped in front of a small hole in a rough platform of ice where some turtle-seals rested, “fly up and find me in the city once I’ve made it through.”

“Zuko, this is madness.” Hikari hissed. “You don’t know how long the tunnel is, you don’t know where it leads. Turn back and we’ll find another way.”

“We agreed to this plan on the ship.” Zuko snapped at her irritably, “besides, even if we haven’t, you don’t make the shots around here. I’m done letting you hold me back.”

Hikari stared at him in defiance, he pretended not to notice or care.

“Just stay out of trouble.” Zuko added, and she wasn’t sure if it had been her hopefulness that had conjured up the ghostly trace of concern in his voice, “you can at least manage that, right?”

Without waiting for a reply, he dove into the tunnel. Instantly Hikari felt a wave of ice wash over her, startling her into taking off into the air. Once she was flying, she realised that it wasn’t her that had gotten wet, but the feeling of her human entering the polar waters that she felt through their connection.

She tried to imagine the direction the tunnels will take and follow them from the air to maintain her proximity with her human, but gave up eventually and made a beeline for the city. That was when she felt it - the pain she remembered from when they were ten, struggling on opposite sides of the room, though no where near as intense. She hovered in the air and welcomed that sensation, the reassurance that she had still been connected to her human, that his heart still called out to hers.

That despite the things he’s done that she could barely stomach and watch without interfering, they still shared one soul. And somewhere, deep down, he was still redeemable.

He was encased in darkness and almost out of breath, kicks becoming increasingly sluggish and arms moving halfheartedly. _I don’t know how much longer I could do this,_ he thought, fighting the urge to open his mouth to fill his lungs with _something_, even the fatal liquid, and pondered what irony or tragedy it would be for the banished Fire Prince to _drown_, nameless and alone, beneath the city of water.

He could feel he was almost dying when the pained started at the pit of his stomach. _Hikari,_ he thought, remembering his room in the palace and holding her on the bed that he hadn’t slept in for close to three years, dreaming of the cloud and explosion of golden dust belonging to the daemon of himself or his cousin, he could no longer tell.

So he let that pain _tug, tug, tug_ him towards the city, where he pictured a little songbird against the stark white snow, red marking sprawled across her face mirroring his own, waiting for her human faithfully, just as she had waited when he went to the Southern Water Tribe, then to Kyoshi, then to the abbey where the Water Tribe soldier had been harbouring the Avatar…

And he kicked and reached for his soul calling him back to her, until his hand hit solid ice.

* * *

He started a fire in a cave and desposited the young monk on the floor, propped up against the rocky wall, rearranged into a somewhat comfortable position as a returned gesture for that time the kid had made him a bed with leaves. Outside, the blizzard raged on in a thick curtain of white, and he couldn’t see further than a couple metres out.

“It will pass eventually.” The melodic voice of Hikari rung out behind him, having sensed her human’s unrest. The bird flew over to the unconscious Avatar, landing on the ropes that restrained the boy and peering at his closed eyes.

“Don’t touch him!” Zuko barked in warning, then as a reply to her previous comment, he muttered, more to himself than anything, “the longer we sit here, the more chance Zhao will notice he’s missing and come for us.”

“There’s no way he can make it through the tundra in this blizzard, we’ve got a head start.” Hikari assured him, still inspecting the boy carefully. “It’s time luck plays on our side, for once.”

“Do you remember what father always said?” Zuko asked softly, more of a soliloquy than for his daemon to hear, “he says that Azula was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born. I bet she wouldn't get caught in this snow storm, everything always came easy to her and Ihnatzius. ”

“You know what? We don’t need luck.” Hikari changed her mind to declare firmly.

“You’re right, we don’t.” Zuko agreed. “nor do we want it. I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am.”

That seemed to wrap up the conversation and boy and bird fell into silence once more. Hikari went back to watching the Avatar with interest, and spoke up once again after a couple minutes. “He’s awfully young, isn’t he? Doesn’t look like he could be older than thirteen.”

“Don’t.” Zuko warned, previous air of civility gone from his voice. The goldfinch ignored his warning and continued, and he wasn’t sure if she was trying to get a rise out of him on purpose.

“He could be twelve, or thirteen. Either way, around our age when we—”

“I said _don’t_.” He cut her off by firing a fireball into the cave wall just above the bird, and just next to the boy’s face, knowing full well where she was going with this.

The human and daemon reached an impasse, glaring at each other angrily, neither speaking, backing down, or moving at all to dissolve the tension in the atmosphere. Just then, however, the Avatar stirred and opened his eyes, and Zuko’s attention snapped back to his hostage.

“Welcome back.” He said with dry and awkward sarcasm.

They were interrupted once again, however, by the flying bison coming in with Sokka, Katara, and a Northern Water Tribe girl he didn’t recognise. They looked like they had a destination in mind, so Zuko didn’t bother hiding or making a run for it.

“Here for a rematch?” He challenged before Hikari could remind him what a dumb idea it was to challenge a waterbender in a tundra full of ice and snow when they knew she had been receiving official training from a master. Within a second, the prince and his daemon were knocked out cold on the frozen ground.

“Wait, we can't just leave him here, he'll die.” Aang interjected as they got on the bison in preparation of heading back to the city.

“Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. Let's bring the guy who's constantly trying to kill us.” Rikki quipped sarcastically as Aang picked up the Fire Nation boy - much too easily for a twelve year old - and hauled him towards Appa.

“Wait, where’s his daemon? If we separate them, they’ll die.” Yue spoke up.

“I’m beginning to think just letting him die is the easier option here.” Rikki continued until Mags snapped at him to shut up. Katara and Guang jumped off the bison to help Aang dig in the snow.

“How hard is it to find a giant cat, even in this weather?” Katara wondered aloud.

“Is that the form of his daemon?” Guang questioned. The three children and two daemons stared at each other, only just coming to the realisation that during all their confrontations, _they had never once seen Zuko’s daemon._

So they shook their heads at each other silently to the incredulous gaze of Yue and Guang, and got back to digging with more urgency, knowing every second they spend here was a second less they had to get back to the spirits on time. Suddenly, Aang yelled in tentative triumph, holding up an unconscious bird in both of him palms.

“Is this it?” He asked, raising his hand to show the others. They all peered down at the tiny bird with soft green feathers, streaked with a dash of gold on each wing, barely the size of Aang’s own hands.

“This…_can’_t be it.” Sokka wondered aloud, glancing between the bird and the prince back on the saddle next to Yue.

“There aren’t any other animals around, or people to account for this daemon, for that matter.” Aang reasoned carefully, using his right thumb to stroke the chest of the small avian carefully, not really registering how big a deal touching another’s daemon was when both her and her human were unresponsive. “Guys, I think this is it. It’s Zuko’s daemon.”

Sokka grinned from ear to ear. “I’m never going to let him live it down.” Rikki said, his smug voice matching his human’s expression perfectly.

* * *

When Zuko came to, his surroundings were in chaos. They were back at the pond where he’d taken the Avatar before, and he saw that his uncle had gotten into the city, and was now crouching in front of the water, surrounded by the two Southern Tribe kids, The Avatar, and the princess. Out of the corner of his eye, the Fire Prince registered a shadow slipping out of the exit. _Zhao._

In a split second decision between the Admiral and the Avatar, he chose the former, following the man out and blocking his escape.

“You're alive!” Zhao’s black panther snarled, half surprised and half furious.

“You tried to have me killed!” The prince accused, remembering the pirates and the blasting jelly and his ship, and how he would have been dead if Hikari hadn’t spotted the band of criminals sneaking off their vessel.

“Yes I did.” Zhao confirmed shamelessly, snarling as viscously as his daemon. “You're the Blue Spirit, an enemy of the Fire Nation! You freed the Avatar. You should have chosen to accept your failure and disgrace. Then, at least, you could have lived.”

Zuko wanted to threaten him. He wanted to tell him that if the _Fire Lord_ had found out about Zhao trying to assassinate his son there will be consequences, that he will tell his father and give him the punishment that he deserves. But deep down, he wasn’t sure if _he_ even believed that any more, and he wasn’t sure either that he could take someone contradicting him once too many times. So he kept his mouth shut.

Instead, he fought.

He fought until the moon came back, and he fought until the waves came. The water had Zhao surrounded and lifted into the air and almost washed away into oblivion. He stopped fighting then and stuck out his hand instead. _Take it,_ he screamed at him, but the stubborn and proud man wanted to prove himself superior even with his dying breath. His panther was still standing on the bridge when she crumbled onto golden dust without so much as a _poof_.

The sneering face of the Admiral engulfed in water had been the last of him Zuko had seen.

* * *

“When I was born, I had no daemon. Our healers did everything they could, but they could not find, or produce, a spirit for me. They told my mother and father that without a soul, I was going to die, that _I shouldn’t even have been breathing in the first place._ My father pleaded with the spirits to save me, he brought me to the oasis and placed me in the pond. My dark hair turned white, and a wolf pup the colour of snow appeared by my side, glowing as he manifested. The moon gifted me my life and my daemon, it is time I gave it back.” 

Sokka could only watch helplessly as Yue reached forward towards the koi fish. He wanted to reach out and pull her arm back and make her choose to live on herself, but he knew he had to respect her choice. It was her sacrifice to make, and he could only live on with it. 

_Too many sacrifices, _he thought of his mother, _too many for this world, and his family, that he could not stop, or save._

As her hand touched the fish, it lit up in radiant white light which seeped into the entire pond of water as Iroh placed it back to be with its dark counterpart. Sokka could only choke back a sob as Yue fell limp.

Instead of bursting into golden dust as daemons do when their humans die, Guang began to light up as the pond did. Tipping his head back to let out a howl as he shone lighter and lighter, until he levitated into the air, floating just before Sokka.

“Goodbye, Sokka.” The white wolf’s mouth moved, but it was the princess’s voice that spoke. "I'll always be with you.”

* * *

The old man and his lioness sat huddled side by side on the driftwood, looking up at the young prince who stood tall on the other side. A bird gave a shrill cry, devoid of her usual melodies, as she circled them above their heads.

“I'm surprised, Prince Zuko, that you are not at this moment trying to capture the Avatar.” Huixin joked dryly, surveying the teenager under a watchful and cautious eye. Zuko merely sighed.

“I'm tired.” He admitted. Hikari flew down to perch on her shoulders, a gesture she rarely did these days, and in the rare times she does, more often than not she would be shrugged off impatiently by the prince himself. This time, however, she remained there undisturbed as Zuko sat down on the piece of wood.

With no engine and no sail, it would be a good two weeks at best to reach the nearest land, if they were impossibly lucky enough to have the currents in their favour, and found the right direction. _They did not have the provision, or the water, to last them that long,_ this uneasy truth hung unspoken between two men and two daemons. But they would come to worry about that later.

“Then you should rest.” For now, Iroh simply offered. “A man needs his rest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yue's daemon is a white wolf. (He had shifted in his youth, I now realise being born a white wolf pup and settling as a white wolf implies he's never shifted, but that's not the case). His name is Guang (光) which means "light" in Mandarin, the word Yueguang 月光 is moonlight, so I figured it was appropriate.
> 
> And that's a wrap on season one! currently I don't have any more content planned based on S1, as I only chose moments I feel could be adapted to the daemons AU without being dull or repetitive and too similar to the original chapter. However, if you'd like to see any episode (or in-between episodes) in a daemons AU context, I will consider taking requests :)
> 
> If you've finished the story and enjoyed it consider leaving a comment! I wouldn't mind even if I've heard from you before and would appreciate it equally! Thanks so much for reading my brainchild and stay tuned to more for the series.


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